This invention relates to a memory device, a print board, and an image forming apparatus equipped therewith, and to a method of judgment and processing.
From the view point of environment protection, it has been required in recent years, reuse in which parts on a print board once used are inspected and only those parts that are close to the termination of life (number of years of useful term) are replaced by new ones, or parts on a print board once used are used in a new product; further, in Japan, the promotion of reuse has been provided by legislation and has become an obligation from the year of 2000. Also the reuse of a print board itself which is for use in an image forming apparatus is not an exception, and its reuse is practiced by every manufacturer. As for the parts on a print board which is used in the image forming apparatus, those parts that have a short life, such as an electrolytic capacitor, a light emitting diode (LED), a switching device, a battery, a liquid crystal device, a fuse resistor, a fuse are the objects of parts replacement.
Up to now, as information for making judgment to replace or not to replace, time period of energized state, number of times of energizing, date of electrification, failure information, etc. are memorized centrally in a nonvolatile memory of a control board (hereinafter referred to also as a main board) of an image forming apparatus (Refer to the publications of the unexamined patent application 2000-31610, etc.). Therefore, it has been necessary that data in the nonvolatile memory of the main board of returned copying machines, printers, facsimile machines, etc. were read out, and the information was written in a tag of a paper sheet or an electronic file to be added to every unit (a member composed of one or more print boards having a specified function).
For this reason, in the disassembling process of an image forming apparatus, it has been necessary an operation to prepare the life information corresponding to each of parts on a print board, and in replacing parts in a unit, manufacturers have been putting it in practice to produce control data of each of the parts again on the basis of the above-mentioned information. Further, in the case where a unit including reused parts was built in an apparatus, it was necessary in the assembly process to rewrite data in a nonvolatile memory of the main board memorizing centrally all bits of life information, on the basis of the data received from the unit maker.
Further, there has been also an ill effect that, in the case where the main board was out of order or the nonvolatile memory memorizing centrally the information was broken, the data could not be read out, and all parts that had been used in the apparatus became incapable of reuse.
Further, it has not been heretofore put into practice to memorize a security code together with life information. From now on, with the progressive spread of recycled or reused products, it is supposed that a reuse product which is not genuine (a pirate product) is used for replacement without the recognition of the user, especially in the case where an individual procures a unit to replace, except for the cases of factory-products which are directly delivered by the parts maker and replacements in large-sized machines for which a serviceman replaces the parts. In this case, because the guarantee of the performance of the reused part cannot be secured, it is possible that the part does not work properly, to make the image forming apparatus incapable of being used.
Moreover, because a means for judging whether a reused product can be applied or not is not provided in an image forming apparatus, there has been a possibility that it is not recognized that an inappropriate reused product is erroneously mounted, and the image forming apparatus is shipped as a good product.
It is the first object of this invention to provide a memory device, a print board, and an image forming apparatus equipped therewith, which are capable of making simple the parts information producing process in the disassembling process of an image forming apparatus for reuse, making simple the parts control of a manufacturer in replacing parts of a unit, eliminating the rewriting process of life information in an assembly process of an apparatus, preventing an erroneous description in rewriting life information, unifying the inspection method in various parts and/or units makers and the improvement of the efficiency of inspection operation, and obtaining life information for each of parts even in the case of breakdown of the main board.
The second object is to provide an image forming apparatus and a method of judgement and processing capable of preventing the mounting of an inappropriate reuse part, judging in the image forming apparatus whether a reuse part can be applied to the pertinent model or not, and preventing an erroneous mounting in the assembly process.